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Toronto faces Catch-22 with impending Seaton House closure

Toronto’s largest emergency shelter has helped countless men. Though stakeholders agree it needs to be shut down, alternatives have been difficult to find.

Former Seaton House resident Frank Coburn, 71, lived at the shelter on and off for nearly a decade after a series of personal crises sent him spiralling into crack cocaine addiction, homelessness and eventually prison. (Vince Talotta / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

By Emma McIntoshStaff Reporter

Sun., June 25, 2017

Frank Coburn says Seaton House saved his life.

The 71-year-old former Humber College professor lived at the shelter on and off for nearly a decade after a series of personal crises — he lost his job, his wife left and a family member died — sent him spiralling into crack cocaine addiction, homelessness and eventually prison.

Coburn used to teach community services courses, educating the next generation of social workers and police officers. Some of them ended up helping him once he entered the system.

“It’s kind of ironic in many ways,” he said with a chuckle.

Though he still uses drugs, Coburn now has a home and helps in various areas of harm reduction work. He’s OK. Stable.

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“If you have the proper supports in place, good things can happen,” Coburn said. “(Without that support) I would’ve still been down there, festering and fighting with my own thoughts and going crazy.”

About 2,800 men stayed at Seaton House from June 1, 2016 until June 1, 2017, according to the City of Toronto. The shelter’s capacity has fluctuated over the years, but now has 539 beds and 42 cots that are used as needed.

But for all the people it has helped and all the front line workers trying their best in a situation they largely inherited, Seaton House also presents a vexing dilemma.

On the one hand, the aging structure — one that was never intended to be used as a shelter, let alone a long-term care facility — is in desperate need of replacement. That started to become clear about a decade ago, said Dr. Stephen Hwang, a physician based at St. Michael’s Hospital who’s been treating patients inside Seaton House for about two decades.

“Over time the building has gradually deteriorated, and it’s not feasible to keep patching it up simply because its design is not really suitable,” said Hwang.

On the other hand, Seaton House is a de facto home for many, one that’s proven difficult to replace.

Though the shelter was originally scheduled to be closed this year, the process has been delayed as the City of Toronto struggles to house displaced residents and fund the rest of the George Street Revitalization project.

The city is aiming to have Seaton House vacant by 2019. Council originally approved the project in 2013, citing the need for a better facility and a safer surrounding area.

“For someone who’s lived in a shelter for a long time as many of the men at Seaton House have, there’s not a housing environment or shelter environment elsewhere that really meets their needs,” Hwang said. “The majority of the men at the shelter have at least one physical illness and often multiple.”

In other words, Seaton House can’t continue as it is, but for now, no one has a reasonable alternative.

The shelter itself is an austere grey structure that dominates its block of George St., just south of Gerrard St. E. A stained black fence winds around it, putting a barrier between the building and a grimy stretch of sidewalk where groups of people can often be seen hanging about.

“On any given night, most beds at Seaton House are occupied, putting typical occupancy at 97 per cent or so,” City of Toronto spokesperson Patricia Anderson said via email.

The facility was built in 1959 as an office building and was never meant for long-term residents, according to a 2013 staff report to city council. However, in a city struggling with an overflowing shelter system and rapidly rising housing costs, many residents like Coburn have had few other options.

“Shelters were never meant to be health-care facilities,” Hwang said. “The city does not consider itself to be a health-care provider, but we have a situation in which a large number of individuals with serious physical and mental illnesses are living in a city-run facility, and that raises all kinds of challenges for the redevelopment.”

Neighbours have long been unhappy about scuffles and drug activity on the street. A long-running strep outbreak, which began last March, has also presented an extra layer of complication, along with ventilation systems that aren’t up to modern standards.

Clients have complaints as well. Though Coburn said he loves the love and empathy between the residents in his former home, it’s not necessarily a happy place: “You walk into Seaton House and you think you’re in prison.”

Though the issues are well-identified, the solutions are harder.

Anti-poverty advocates have long opposed the city’s plans to relocate Seaton House residents to the suburbs, where they’ll be far from the social services concentrated in the downtown core.

Hwang said the process would be less worrisome if it were easier to find appropriate shelter buildings downtown. The key word is appropriate — after all, an ill-suited facility is part of what made Seaton House so problematic in the first place.

“I’m not someone who’s against the redevelopment,” Hwang said. “If done well, I believe it will lead to an overall better situation. But it’s going to be a very challenging transition.”

Coburn, however, said he wants the city to know it isn’t as simple as transplanting people from one shelter to another. If officials ask the Seaton House residents what they want and ensure they have access to the supports they need, there’s a higher chance the project will be successful, he said.

“Putting them in a nice apartment somewhere isn’t going to solve the problem,” Coburn said, adding that without proper help, Seaton House’s residents might return to the streets. “They’re probably going to end up back at Sherbourne and Dundas, sleeping in Moss Park.”

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